It is well known that the preparation of the aforementioned containers entails a delicate step of cutting the container itself, aimed at adapting its inlet to the peripheral dimensions of the patient's stoma. Usually, said cutting operation is performed manually by the nurse or by the patient who, after ascertaining the dimensions of the stoma, cuts, using appropriate scissors or similar cutting devices and according to his/her manual skills, the respective sanitary container.
To facilitate the adaptation of the sanitary containers to patients' stomas, some commercially available sanitary containers are provided with a series of reference guide lines to follow during the cutting operation. However, even with the aid of said reference guide lines, the precision of the cut depends exclusively on the operator's manual skills, which can be compromised by physical limitations, e.g. visual and/or tactile deficiencies.
To overcome the aforementioned problems, the Applicant has devised and patented a device for cutting sanitary containers for stomas. Said known device comprises a support structure whereon is positioned a respective sanitary container, and appropriate cutting means, able to adapt the inlet of the sanitary container to the dimensions and to the shape of the corresponding stoma of a patient. The cutting means are adapted to cut the structure of the sanitary container by means of at least a cutting blade borne by a respective supporting rod which is hinged to the structure of the device to guide the cutting blade along a closed cutting line.
To assure the adaptability of the sanitary containers to the dimensions of the respective stoma, the device further comprises a plurality of support rods with differentiated length which are replaceable in relation to the amplitude of the inlet to be obtained
Although the aforementioned cutting device allows a satisfactory adjustment of the inlet of sanitary containers for stomas, the Applicant has observed that said device is not free of some drawbacks and can be improved under several aspects, mainly in relation to its ease of use, to the ease of assembly of the various components and to its structural simplicity.
In particular, the Applicant has observed that the presence of numerous support rods with different length forces the nurse to perform continual replacement of said rods, to try to obtain inlets that will precisely conform to the respective stomas, leading to a considerable time wastage and a degree of precision that is not always satisfactory.
Moreover, the known device is constituted by a high number of components that entail considerable difficulties during assembly and/or disassembly, especially if it is mounted directly by the patient or by an inexperienced nurse.
Additionally, the presence of numerous components causes high costs of production and/or marketing of the aforementioned devices which must be affordable for everyone.